Ms Harman will speak at a Welsh Labour pre-conference event in Llandudno today

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has praised the Welsh Government’s handling of the winter floods, contrasting it with the “poor” performance of the Westminster Coalition.

Ms Harman, who will speak at a pre-conference event in Llandudno today, said she was impressed by the Welsh Government’s approach, which had displayed “initiative, enterprise and entrepreneurship”.

In the current National Assembly term the Welsh Government has committed £240m towards flood defences, while in England the funding for such defences was cut from £670m in 2010/11 to £575m in both 2013/14 and 2014/15 – a reduction of 17% in real terms.

Ms Harman, the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said: “Tourism is a vital force for our seaside towns, whether in Wales or other parts of the UK.

“But some parts of the tourist industry have been played a difficult hand, contending with the recession and more recently with floods.

“We can learn a lot from the approach of the Welsh Government, which has prioritised flood defences and acted quickly to give tourist businesses in areas hardest hit extra funding to get back up and running in time for Easter.

“Jobs Growth Wales has secured almost 2,500 opportunities for young people in North Wales alone.

“All these efforts send out the right message: the Welsh seaside, whether Aberystwyth, Benllech, Rhyl or Barry, is open for business.”

Ms Harman said she had noticed the way public services in Wales had been marshalled to deal with the impact of flooding in Aberystwyth and other parts of West Wales while in England flood victims had been made to feel helpless by the “poor” response for which she blamed the Westminster coalition.

Meanwhile, the party’s deputy leader was very pleased to see further strides towards gender equality being taken by Welsh Labour in its selection of candidates.

Tomorrow the conference is expected to approve a policy statement on “fair representation” that will see the party aim to field women in 40% of winnable seats at the next council elections in 2017, as well as using all-women shortlists selectively for the Assembly election in 2016.

A statement from the party’s Welsh Executive says: “We have a proud record of improving the representation of women in elected office in Wales.

“As a party we have done more than any other to take the positive action needed to increase the number of women at all levels of elected office.

“Conference recognises that it is because of the decision of Welsh Labour’s conference in 1998 to endorse ‘twinning’ to select candidates for the first ever elections to the Assembly that today it remains a world leader in women’s representation.”

At that time each of Wales’ 40 constituency Labour parties was twinned with another so that a male and female candidate could be selected.

The statement continues: “However, we know more needs to be done and we recognise our responsibility as the largest and most successful party in Wales to give a strong lead for other parties to follow...

“We should not accept that, on current trends, a girl born today will have to wait 62 years before there are equal numbers of men and women in local government.”

Committing itself to “maintain gender parity” in the Assembly Labour group, the Welsh Executive asks conference delegates to endorse the use of all-women shortlists “as the single most effective measure to ensure the continued fair representation of women”.

At local government level the party will “aim to increase to 40%” the number of women candidates fielded in women seats.

However, a Welsh Labour spokesman stressed this would not involve de-selecting sitting male councillors – a move that, if implemented, would be certain to cause ructions within the party.

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